James Braid Country Life Magazine Portrait September 12 1925

James Braid Country Life Magazine Portrait, Frontispiece, September 12 1925. LVIII No. 1497

The featured frontispiece this week is a portrait of James Braid, the legendary Scottish professional golfer and five-time Open Championship winner. The portrait was painted by Sir Herbert James Gunn (often referred to as H. J. Gunn), a prominent 20th-century Scottish portrait artist.

• The Subject: James Braid (1870–1950), one of the greatest figures in golf history and a member of the legendary “Great Triumvirate” alongside Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor.
• Artist: The portrait was painted by Sir Herbert James Gunn (1893–1964), a leading Scottish portrait artist known for his formal depictions of royalty and notable public figures.
• Career & Legacy: Braid was a five-time Open Championship winner and served as the professional at Walton Heath Golf Club for an extraordinary 46 years, where the original portrait is held.
• Marriage: He married Minnie Alice Wright on November 1, 1898, in Essex, England.
• Children: The couple had two sons:
  • James Braid Jr. (born 1899): Later became a director of a whisky company and lived in Troon until his death in 1965.
  • Harry Muirfield Braid (born 1901): Named to commemorate his father’s Open victory at Muirfield; a talented amateur golfer who won the Elie Links Championship in 1952 and later served as Chairman of the Johnnie Walker whisky company.
• Family Life: The family lived at a house named “Earlsferry” in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, a nod to Braid’s Scottish roots. He was known as a devoted family man, remaining close to his sons throughout his life.

This is an authentic original page from Country Life magazine, part of the iconic series often affectionately referred to as the “Girls in Pearls” portraits — elegant society images that captured a distinctive era of British publishing and portraiture.

Size: Approximately 13.75 x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm)

Condition: Very good for its age. As with all vintage magazine pages, light signs of handling or minor age-related blemishes may be present. Please review the large photo carefully for full condition details.

This original Country Life Magazine frontispiece portrait forms part of The Old Map Shop’s curated archive of society portraits published between 1897 and 2026.